My Loot, Your Tears

Three hours of ninja salvaging had gone by without a single mission runner shooting at me. I was getting desperate. When I scanned down an Apocalypse Navy Issue, I grabbed a gank Hurricane I had sitting around and warped in. Perhaps looting in a battlecruiser would get this guy all hot and bothered. Apparently it did, because he opened fire as soon as I looted.

Unfortunately my Hurricane isn't a match for a well-fit faction battleship, and I ended up warping out in structure.
 

 

I go grab my Sacrilege, and Gunbuster mouths off in local:

[ 2011.01.25 01:05:49 ] Gunbuster Rono > you better run!
[ 2011.01.25 01:09:59 ] Gunbuster Rono > just to let everyone know, Khalia Nestune is coming into missions and looting just so he can get you to attack. he wasn't able to kill me in his hurricane, though

He's left the mission but is still in system. I have written his scan id down, like all good probers do, so I scan him down to an asteroid belt. Thirty seconds later I have a point on him. Here begins a long, long battle. I get under his guns, but he turns everything off except his hardeners and pulses his armor repper. My single medium energy neutralizer isn't enough to entirely kill his capacitor because of this, so we stalemate staying at 100% armor.
 

 

Meanwhile, on Vent:

Khalia: "For the love of god, I can't break this Apoc Navy's tank!"
Paul: "Should I head down there?"
Khalia: "You may as well, I'm going to be here for a while."
Paul: "Ok... it's 16 jumps. Bringing the JerkTengu."

My next move is to warp in my alts - one in a Basilisk for shield/energy, the other in the Orca. I don't use the Basilisk right now as I don't need either cap transfer or any remote repair. The Orca has some junk modules in it from looting, so I locate a small energy neut and fit it up.
 

 

The second neut has no effect. I send my Basilisk alt off to purchase a medium energy neut from the next system over. That goes on soon enough, and has zero effect. We're now at 20 minutes and counting with his tank still not broken.

Khalia: "Paul, where the hell are you?"
Paul: "Getting you another medium neut and some ammo, you ungrateful jerk."

In local:

[ 2011.01.25 01:36:12 ] Gunbuster Rono > all this time you've wasted. you could've already found another prey to kill
[ 2011.01.25 01:38:19 ] Khalia Nestune > Patience is rewarded =)

 

Paul finally arrives, 30 minutes after I'd pointed the Apoc Navy Issue. He drops me a third energy neut - and forgets the ammo of course - and swaps ships with my Basilisk pilot. If Gunbuster shoots Paul when he transfers me energy, Paul can swap back into the Tengu and quickly end this internet space ship Mexican stand-off.

The third medium neut does the trick and his tank breaks. I offer a ransom of 400m, but he's wise to us dishonoring the ransom. What happens later means we end up with even more ISK than if he had paid ransom!

[ 2011.01.25 01:45:48 ] Khalia Nestune > 400m, or I pop it
[ 2011.01.25 01:46:10 ] Gunbuster Rono > you're going to pop it anyway
[ 2011.01.25 01:46:15 ] Khalia Nestune > not if you pay

So I continue to shoot him. Then, this happens:
 

 

Khalia: "What the hell... did he eject?!"
Paul: "Holy shit, yes he did. Stop shooting!"
Khalia: "Stoped. Can't board!"
Paul: "Stop targeting it... I'm in!"

 

Gunbuster gives his 600M Apocalypse Navy Issue to us and we're just agog about it. It isn't even a mistake, as he comments in local:
 

2011.01.25 01:48:40 ] Gunbuster Rono > forget it. you can have the ship
[ 2011.01.25 01:48:52 ] Khalia Nestune > o./
[ 2011.01.25 01:48:52 ] Gunbuster Rono > next time i just wont shoot you
[ 2011.01.25 01:50:03 ] Khalia Nestune > thanks dude!
[ 2011.01.25 01:50:05 ] Khalia Nestune > woo
[ 2011.01.25 01:50:15 ] Paul Clavet > He ejected, we own the ship now

 

Paul gives me the Apoc Navy, and I give him 100M ISK for his help. I'm still stunned. He had a lot of options - he could have self-destructed, denying us anything. He could have let it die, and we would have gotten some T2 modules. If he had friends, a remote-rep battleship with guns would have ended the whole thing.

 

 

 

Post Note: My girlfriend is a gamer, but she's not familiar with EVE. The previous night we're chatting on instant messenger, and I was explaining about mission runner 'piracy':

(11:44:59 PM) Khalia's girlfriend: can't you steal other people's ships and have a fleet or something?
(11:45:06 PM) Khalia: ?
(11:45:26 PM) Khalia: not sure what you're asking
(11:45:44 PM) Khalia's girlfriend: can you hijack a ship?
(11:45:54 PM) Khalia: not in the sense you mean
(11:46:13 PM) Khalia: you'd have to get the player to eject from his ship, and you'd have to eject from yours and then board his
(11:46:25 PM) Khalia: but there is really no reason to eject from your ship in a fight
(11:47:00 PM) Khalia: we do ransom people ("Give use xxxx $ or we blow you up")
(11:47:06 PM) Khalia: and then promptly blow them up anyways
(11:47:11 PM) Khalia's girlfriend: nice
(11:47:41 PM) Khalia's girlfriend: but I mean, what if the other person's ship is shinier and you want it. Can you take it if you wanted to?
(11:48:11 PM) Khalia: not really, no
(11:48:49 PM) Khalia's girlfriend: so you can rob and kidnap but there's no space piracy?
(11:49:07 PM) Khalia: piracy is blowing them up and taking whatever survives
(11:49:32 PM) Khalia's girlfriend: that's what i mean though
(11:49:46 PM) Khalia: can't get the ship complete tho

Men take note: Anything you tell your girl is impossible, she will prove you wrong.

This entry was posted on January 24, 2011 at 11:12 PM by khalia and is filed under Combat, Duffers, Ninja Salvaging.